just had an interesting one

[bryan35]

driving for a doctors appointment and come across temporary traffic lights with a workman stood next to them. He appears to be directing the traffic. The lights are at red and vehicles are coming the other way as you'd expect, then mr workman signals me through after the last car.

Now, what to do?. Even though temporary the lights in the eyes of the law are no different from permenant ones, and only a uniformed officer can direct the traffic, and the light is still red.

and the traffic is building up behind you...........

[SS2.]

Maybe the traffic light controller had failed and the lights were stuck on red - hence the workman directing traffic..

[R_U_LOCAL]

One of those common sense moments.

Temporary traffic lights can be tempromental and if they're stuck on red I don't see anything wrong with the workman directing traffic, even though he's not strictly authorised to do so.

I've always found it safer to do a point in such circumstances with all the lights on red, rather than all switched off.

[tigger1]

Curisou one last night where a car assumed lights were stuck read (after all of 5 seconds waiting!) - then went through. 3 cars and a bike followed, just as cars coming across the crossroads were going through at 30mph...

[Dwight VanDriver]

SS2. said:

Maybe the traffic light controller had failed and the lights were stuck on red - hence the workman directing traffic..

In which case all he had to do was put a sack over the lights or turn them away from traffic.

No longer comply.

dvd

[Davel]

Imagine setting off and meeting something coming from the other direction.

I wonder where our director of traffic would then be found?

'You told me to go'

'Who me? No chance mate, I was leaning on this shovel picking my nose at the time!'

You can normally see the other lights ahead but there are times when you are vulnerable and agree that, if not working, they should be turned away from oncoming traffic.

[bryan35]

indeed, I couldn't see the other set of lights, and really he should have covered the lights up. Common sense says go through, and I would have thought that a common sense plod would bollock the workman and not the traffic, either for directing the traffic, or for not covering the lights.